


A Shadow of Hope

by SpaceWolfQueen



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-30
Updated: 2018-09-30
Packaged: 2019-07-16 14:45:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,282
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16088261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpaceWolfQueen/pseuds/SpaceWolfQueen
Summary: While chasing Kylo Ren, Rey finds herself confronted by an unexpected presence. She'll be forced to decide: kill Kylo Ren or save him.





	A Shadow of Hope

“Keep your eyes peeled,” Poe’s voice crackled through the com, warning her of the incoming danger. 

“It’s just an asteroid belt,” Rey grinned. Did Kylo really think he could lose her so easily? He may be a good pilot but she was giving him a run for his credits. This was the third time he’d flown through space debris and each time, Rey blasted through hot on his tracks. 

“Still, I’m not-” Poe’s voice cut off abruptly. 

“Poe?” Reaching forward, Rey fiddled with the com’s controls. It wouldn’t be the first time the Falcon had technical difficulties. Still, this wasn’t exactly a great moment for one. 

“Rey,” the voice burst through the silence, startling her. “Turn back.” His voice was surprisingly calm given how he must know this would end. 

Out of habit, Rey’s eyes darted all around, looking for him. It had been some time since they’d seen one another through their Force connection. Was this another one of those times? Or had he somehow hacked into her com system? Why then was she no longer receiving communication from Poe at the Resistance base? 

“Not a chance,” Rey growled in response. “I’ve been ordered to bring you in to answer for the crimes you’ve committed against the galaxy and her people.” It was a line Rey had rehearsed in her mind numerous times. She’d recited it to herself over and over until her voice no longer cracked or wavered. 

“There’s no time!” His voice burst through the cockpit of the Falcon, echoing all around her with its urgency. “My ship is malfunctioning. I’ve lost control. If you come any closer the same will happen to you.”

“Nice try. I won’t fall for your lies.” Rey had trusted him. She’d trusted Ben at least, making the mistake of falling for his potential, of the man he might one day be. It’d taken her far too long to realize she’d been tricked and she had no one to blame but herself. Kylo Ren had never claimed to be any more than what he truly was: a monster. 

“Rey, I’m not-”

Alarms blared all around her, drowning out his words. Systems were shutting down left and right. Red lights flashed warnings all around her. Engine problems. Low fuel. Shields down. Things which couldn’t possibly be malfunctioning were suddenly going very, very wrong. Rey no longer had control of the ship.The controls had a mind of their own. 

Why hadn’t she let Chewie come with her? He knew more about the Falcon than she did. But she’d insisted she needed to do this on her own, claiming she’d piloted the Falcon numerous times by herself; she’d be fine without a co-pilot. 

In reality, Rey had been terrified to allow anyone, even Chewie, to be witness to her confrontation with Kylo. After all they had been through, Rey couldn’t be sure how she’d react to seeing him in person. 

Just as Rey leapt into action, silence descended. As quickly as the alarms burst throughout the hold, everything stopped. There were no sounds, no warnings, no lights flashing. It was as if the entire Falcon had shut off. 

“Kylo?” Rey’s voice shook as she called out to him. Her voice sounded odd, like she was trying to talk through a pillow muffling her words. 

“I know,” Kylo responded, voice sounding the same as hers. “It’s happening on my ship too.”

“What is it? What’s happening?” 

Before he had a chance to reply, bright lights flashed all around her ship, blinding her through the front window of the cockpit and blocking her view of Kylo’s ship ahead. Raising a hand, Rey attempted to shield her eyes from the worst of it, hoping it would fade away, that they’d pass by whatever weird light anomaly it was. 

“Are you seeing this?” Kylo asked her in an awed tone. 

“Wh-” Rey saw it. 

The light shifted, morphing into something different. Strange visions danced around as the Falcon appeared to travel through some sort of tunnel. All around the light played back scenes of her past. There she was scavenging her first ship wreckage, looking for anything that might be valuable. Here she was putting together scraps of fabric to make a doll. And there-- wait. That wasn’t her. A young boy running through a field; laughter echoed throughout the Falcon, filling Rey’s heart with such joy as the boy grinned at someone or something Rey couldn’t see. But then a moment later, the same boy, slightly older, sitting alone in his room, crying silent tears. 

“Is that-”

“Yes,” Kylo cut her off.

Rey wasn’t sure how to respond so she said nothing. All around them, scenes from their childhoods darted by, glowing with the strange light. 

How lonely they both were! Such lost souls, separated from their families and thrown into lives neither had chosen for themselves. 

“Ben-”

“Don’t,” he cut her off again. A good thing too because Rey wasn’t even sure what she would have said. 

Just as Rey in the vision was meeting BB-8 and Ben Solo was placing the mask of Kylo Ren on his head, the visions faded with the bright light until nothing but darkness surrounded them. 

“Have we passed through then?” Rey’s voice was nothing more than a whisper but somehow she knew he could hear her, wherever he was. 

“This isn’t over yet,” his muffled words were flat, void of any emotion. As he said them, the space surrounding Rey shifted, melting away from her. One moment she was sitting, strapped into the pilot’s seat and the next, she was standing on nothing. Or was she floating? The Falcon no longer encased her. Was she somehow floating around in space? How was she still breathing? Why didn’t she feel any panic or fear?

“Rey?” 

Several feet away, Kylo Ren stood, his clothes almost blending into the darkness surrounding them. His eyes locked onto hers, fixing her in place 

“Is this real?” The question shot from her mouth and landed in the empty space between them. The words seemed to take on a life of their own, echoing in the black abyss. 

His eyes left her only to take in the space around them. As she watched him, his body betrayed nothing, not a hint of what he was thinking or feeling. 

“I see no evidence of this not being real,” he spoke at last. He opened his mouth to say more but abruptly closed it again. His eyes narrowed and cut to something just behind her shoulder. Following his gaze, Rey turned slowly, her entire body on edge. 

A white mist was forming in the darkness, origin unknown. As she watched, the mist swirled in and around, caressing her bare skin and then pulling back in on itself. It molded itself into a shape, somewhere between a gas state and a solid. The shape elongated and widened, then thinned once more. Studying it, Rey tried to discern what it was forming itself into. She blinked and suddenly it was clearly the shape of a woman with the fog swirling around her white and semi-transparent legs. 

“Who are you?” Rey demanded, though perhaps she should have been asking the thing “what are you.”

“I am that which you call ‘the Force’,” the white mist of a woman said in an angelic and calm voice. 

Behind her, Kylo let out a snort, clearly not believing the words. “The Force is not a sentient being. It does not have thoughts or words.”

“Your first sentence would have been sufficient to achieve your point,” the thing replied with a soft smile on its lips. 

Rey bit back a smile of her own even though Kylo wouldn’t have been able to see it. She was already fond of this creature, whoever or whatever it was. The thing gave off a motherly and caring aura, like a creature whose purpose was to nurture and protect. It was something Rey had only felt from another person once before in Leia. But where Leia’s motherly aura had been muted with things such as human emotions and fears, the Force’s aura was undiluted. 

“Rey,” the mist creature turned its focus away from Kylo, honing in on Rey with its haunting eyes. “The time has come.”

The words settled around them with an air of finality. They echoed in Rey’s mind with a sense of foreboding. Even as she asked the question, she already knew the answer. “Time for what?” How suddenly Rey had been filled with the ease of a mother’s love only to have it stripped away by fear. Perhaps the Force was so much larger, fuller of life than humans could comprehend that it messed with their emotions. Perhaps that was why the Force didn’t present itself in this form to lesser beings. Why now then?

“To end Kylo Ren.” 

Rey stiffened, body and mind. She slipped into a defensive pose, just waiting for the thing to attack. She’d defend Kylo Ren, without pause or question. 

“You know what must be done, Rey,” the being seemed unphased by the hostility rolling off Rey in waves. 

“I will not,” Rey growled through clenched teeth. 

The Force was sending waves of serenity towards Rey even as she struggled to remain in defense, lightsaber at the ready, just waiting for her to ignite the double bladed beams. Twice, Rey caught herself giving into the calm, lowering her weapon. Twice, she brought it back up with a snarl. 

“The galaxy has suffered atrocities at the hands of this self-proclaimed Supreme Leader,” the Force’s-- if it could be called that; Rey wasn’t quite sure anymore-- tone mocked Kylo’s title. “Innocents have died. The Resistance was nearly destroyed. The Galaxy and the Force are knocked out of balance. He cannot be suffered to live.”

“Your first sentence would have been sufficient to achieve your point,” Kylo drawled as he stepped up next to Rey. His approach had been silent; he startled her with his sudden appearance. Only a few feet separated them and yet, Rey’s senses were completely overwhelmed. She felt his presence like an electric current surrounding her. It was somewhat similar to what the woman-shaped mist did to her. Only with Kylo, Rey felt his presence molding and shaping around her own, their auras blending into one another's. The woman’s was like invisible tentacles slithering in and around Rey, infiltrating and, demanding Rey’s aura to submit to hers. 

The Force’s eyes snapped to Kylo as if weighing him in a new light. Whatever she saw there, she instantly discarded. 

“You are not the judge and executioner,” Rey cut in before either of them could say more. 

The mist form shimmered and shook, as if offended by Rey’s words. 

“I am that which you call ‘the Force.’ I am what surrounds and encompasses all living things. I am all knowing and all powerful. I can create and destroy.” As the thing spoke, the mist around its legs swirled faster, building up speed and density, raising it several feet until it was glaring down at them with a fire in its eyes. 

“Just you try to destroy him,” Rey lashed out, her words hotter than even she was expecting. Kylo’s presence fueled her strength. 

“Rey.”

She’d been expecting a response from the creature, even an attack. She hadn’t been expecting Kylo to say anything, or even sound like he was about to argue with her. 

“Don’t.” The word was but a whisper. With a single word, she pleaded with him not to say what he was about to. 

“You know it must be done,” Kylo spoke as if he hadn’t heard her plea, or perhaps he had and simply ignored it. “I don’t know who or what this… this thing is,” he gestured towards the mist shape. “But, what it says is true.”

Rey stared him before sliding her head just a few inches to the right in a silent no. 

“What the thing says is true. I’ve committed countless crimes. The galaxy would benefit from my absence. I deserve to die.”

Deserve to die echoed in Rey’s mind. How could he think that? How could he believe that? Yes, he’d committed many wrongs. But did that mean he deserved to die? 

In her many years on Jakku, isolated and alone, Rey had done questionable things. When it came down to survive or die, Rey had always chosen to survive. A survivor that lived to right her wrongs, atone for her sins. Dead, she was nothing. 

Had Ben Solo been put in the same position? 

“No.” 

“Rey,” Kylo’s voice sounded as gentle as it possibly could. “Search your feelings. You know the truth.”

“No,” Rey said again. She couldn’t-- wouldn’t admit it. The galaxy may demand Kylo’s head on a platter but Rey refused to believe it.

Abruptly, Rey was assaulted from every side; she saw visions, realities of things which had been or would have been of Kylo Ren’s existences. Some visions occured on worlds so foreign to her, she was unable to process the scenes unfolding. Others she wished she couldn’t. 

There he was destroying the Resistance, calling out for their complete annihilation. 

“Kill them all,” he ordered in a calm but demanding voice. “No prisoners,” he ordered in the voice of a heartless leader. 

Worlds and realities swirled around her. Here, he was a teacher, coaching her to murder and demolish those who might stand a chance against her. Another he was nothing more than a young Jedi attempting to overthrow the order of the Sith. There, he was asking her to sacrifice all that she knew to be true. Eliminate the threat to rule the galaxy.

“Ben!” She cried out, hoping for a guide among the unexplainable. 

“Destroy it, Rey,” he called back. 

Destroy what? The being or the reality? Rey had no knowledge of right or wrong. No sense of time or place.

There, she was watching as Kylo Ren destroyed her friends and the only family she knew. Here, he was helping her, coaching her to be the strongest and wisest she could be in the face of the unknown.

“Destroy it!” Kylo’s voice rang loud and clear. 

Destroy what exactly? Rey tried to call out to him, to get guidance but his voice was lost among the visions.

Suddenly, she found herself surrounded by a dark room, a quiet place with no sound. A wooden crib shimmered into existence just a few feet to her right. A small baby, not even three weeks old, cooed. She reached out, trying to touch the child. 

“Rey?” His voice broke through her already failing mental walls, seeking the very part of her soul she kept guarded. “Is that you?”

“Ben?” She turned, trying to find him in the vast abyss. Instantly, he appeared in the darkness. 

“You’re dead,” the cold words rang with truth, assaulting her even as she stood there flesh and bone, denying her very being.

“I’m here,” she said, looking back at the baby girl nestled in the covers within her crib.

“No,” said Ben. Was that truly him? “You died in childbirth. How are you here?”

For a moment, time ceased to exist. All that surrounded her was the nursery and Ben. He stood like a solid plane of rock, dark and immovable. Small details leapt into place as Rey looked around the dark room. A rocker sat in the corner, ancient and filled with memories. A blanket pooled at his feet, implying he’d been asleep in the rocker, within arm’s reach of the baby, if she needed him. In the opposite corner, a run down droid sat in a pile of broken pieces, never to be turned on to assist in raising the child. 

What had happened to it? Why hadn’t Ben replaced it? 

Rey startled, his words suddenly hitting her. She’d died in childbirth. Ben slept in the same nursery. She’d given birth to Kylo Ren’s daughter. For that was the man standing before her. The dark and deadly man who killed without emotion. Yet in his eyes, she saw traces of Ben, the man who held guarded secrets but cared for her without question. 

“Who are you?” he asked. 

Was he Ben? Her Ben? Or was this another illusion, sent to torment her. 

“I am here,” she argued. She was the only truth she could trust. Throughout all she’d seen one thing remained constant, remained true. She was alive; she was whole.

“No,” the figure who looked like Ben-- her Ben-- denied. “I watched you die. You can’t be here.”

The baby cried out, seeking comfort. Her body responded. This baby, this innocent life, needed her. 

“Rey,” the voice broke through, invading her mind. “Kylo Ren brings nothing but pain and destruction in every life he lives. See how he torments and destroys your very being.”

Who was that? Whose voice was she hearing?

“Rey,” the man who looked like Ben reached towards her. “You died. I saw you die.” Even while his words were firm, he seemed to doubt himself, to question the memories he knew for certain. 

“I’m here,” Rey said.

The babe called to her on a cellular level. This child needed her, her mother. 

“Stop,” Ben’s voice halted her with a single word. “Don’t touch her.”

“Please.” Rey looked at the child, so lost, so desperate. She needed her mother, needed Rey. If Rey could just hold her, comfort her for just a moment.

“You’re not my Rey,” this Ben accused. 

The scene shifted, morphing into something else. There was Ben, protecting Rey from an assault of creatures who looked human yet had burning red coals for eyes. Rey lunged to protect him and was caught by a stinging sensation in her heart, something metal assaulted her core. It hurt. It felt like her life was seeping out of her. 

“Rey!” Ben’s voice cried out, surrounding her on all sides. 

There he was, throwing himself between her and blaster fire heading straight towards her head. 

“No!”

The scene shifted. A different world, a different time. 

Rey stood with the babe in her arms, trying to comfort the child who wailed for something long lost. 

“Is it you?” Ben’s voice punctured her very soul. “Have you truly come back from the dead?” 

Rey tried to absorb every detail, every mark and line on the child’s face in her arms but again the scene shifted, assaulting her with new and untold heartaches. Finn cried out with a determination unlike any she’d ever known. He battled Stormtrooper after Stormtrooper until he was struck down by stray fire from a blaster. 

There was Poe, leading an army of Resistance pilots into battle only to be caught in the crossfire, never to be heard from again.

“Make it stop,” Rey pleaded, hoping her words would reach someone, anyone who could hear her and stop the continuing onslaught of suffering 

“Now do you see?” The voice was familiar, Rey struggled to put a time and place to its origin. “Now do you understand why he must be stopped?” 

“Rey!” Ben’s voice echoed around her like a lost soul, searching for salvation.

“Please,” Rey said. She didn’t know what she was asking for, or what answer she sought. 

“Across all worlds, across all realities, Kylo Ren brings nothing but pain and destruction. If left to his own, he will kill you and destroy all which you love. He will destroy your soul.”

Rey shook her head in denial and was met only with more pain. There was Kylo killing Han Solo, a man who had only sought to help, to heal. Again, there was Kylo, holding his thumb just above the button which would kill his own mother. 

“Please,” Rey cried out once more. Her head pounded with numerous war drums, all louder than the last. “Please make it stop.”

“You can end it,” the Force’s voice cut through the constant darkness and violence. Its maternal aura surrounding Rey, promising an end to her suffering. “End Kylo Ren and the pain will stop.” 

“I can’t.” 

“You can and you must,” the voice argued back.

“Rey?” There was Ben-- her Ben. The Ben she’d grown close to, the one who had comforted her after her experience in the cold, dark cave. “You must do as it says.”

Rey repelled from his words, hating the truth in them.

“There is no light left in Kylo Ren,” the Force cried out. “He must be destroyed.” 

“No!” The single word echoed throughout all time and space, throughout the countless lives Rey had witnessed and lived. “There is still good in him!”

“Please,” a child cried. “Please stop me.”

To Rey’s horror, a young Ben Solo appeared before her. He was around the same age as he must have been when Luke Skywalker had sought him out, seeking answers to how dark he had fallen. 

“You must stop me,” the young Ben said. He was only a few years younger than her but he still had some baby fat in his cheeks, making him appear innocent and young. 

“No,” Rey rejected the plea. How could she end someone she still held hope in?

“Kylo Ren will be the downfall of all you hold dear,” the Force echoed around her. 

“But Ben Solo will not,” Rey denied, standing tall and sure. “There is still light in him!” 

The visions ceased all around her until nothing was left but her and Ben and the strange anomaly which had named itself as the Force. 

“Foolish child!” The Force shouted at her as the strange mist swirled and descended. “He will bring nothing but death and decay!”

“You’re wrong!” Rey shouted back. Throughout all the worlds and lives she’d seen, she’d experienced hate and death. But there was more. There was hope and life. 

A terrifying screech rang out from the mist, engulfing them with its very might of horror. “You must kill him or be destroyed yourself!” It cried, a final plea for Rey to comply. 

“Then, I will die knowing I held out for hope.” The words rang loud and clear imbued with the light Rey carried within her soul. 

As suddenly as the mist form had appeared, it vanished, leaving Rey alone in darkness. 

“Ben?” she whirled around, seeking him within the void. 

“Why?” his voice was broken as he knelt before her, his head hung low. “Why didn’t you listen to it?” 

“Because it was wrong,” Rey flung herself down before him, wrapping him in her arms. 

How often had she imagined a similar scene of her confronting Kylo Ren with the crimes he committed against the galaxy? How many times had she pictured her assaulting him with the wrongs he’d allowed to unfold? 

Yet here she knelt, comforting the man she’d thought would never know guilt or shame. His very being vibrated with guilt, with the shame of the crimes he committed. He’d thought himself unworthy of love, unworthy of being saved from the darkness. 

“Rey,” his broken voice cut through her heart like shards of glass. “Why didn’t you kill me?” 

The world around them shifted, changing itself back to the way it once was. As she reached out to place a hand on his shoulder, suddenly she was grasping a control shaft within the Millennium Falcon. 

“Ben?” Rey’s quiet voice echoed around the cockpit which had appeared suddenly, fully intact, around her once more. “Ben, are you there?”

“Rey?” The voice was but a deeper version of the child she had heard earlier, begging her to stop him. 

“I’m here, Ben!”

“What happened?” he asked, his voice breaking. 

“I’m not sure,” Rey admitted. 

What had happened? One moment, she’d been chasing him through an asteroid belt, the next, she’d been fighting against a creature calling itself the Force.

“There’s a small planet about two clicks to the east of you,” Ben replied, the broken child he once was buried deep down. “Land there. I need to see you.”

Rey followed his orders, unsure why she was even listening to him. She’d seen horrific things. Seen Kylo Ren bring darkness and destruction to anything he touched. Yet, she’d witnessed the broken boy beneath it all, the one crying out for help. 

The Millennium Falcon landed on the icy surface of the uninhabited planet. Had Chewie been with her, he might have argued against her actions, claiming it was foolish to trust someone who called himself the “Supreme Leader.” While Chewie himself had helped Rey ship off to the First Order in hopes of saving Ben, things had changed on Crait. 

Ignoring the doubts flooding her mind, Rey landed the ship and dashed out from the cockpit, desperate to confront the man she’d nearly killed only moments ago. 

“-- so sure about this,” Poe’s voice bounded throughout the ship.

“Wait,” Rey struggled to comprehend what he might be referring to. “What?” She edged back into the cockpit. She’d nearly forgotten about Poe and his sudden disappearance. 

“You’re flying blind into a--- wait---” Poe’s voiced crackled through the com. “What the hell?” 

“What is it?” Rey demanded.

“I-- I--” Poe seemed to struggle to explain himself. “You were just on the other side of that asteroid belt. And now you’re on an uncharted planet. What the hell?”

It wasn’t possible. Surely, it wasn’t possible. 

“What are you talking about, Poe?” Rey pressed, hoping for a clear and reasonable explanation. 

“I mean, one second you’re on the outside of an unexplored belt and the next, you‘ve landed on a planet hundreds of clicks past the belt itself.” 

Could it be possible?

“Poe, I’ll get back to you,” Rey reached over to turn off the com.

“Rey!” Poe’s voice bounded throughout the ship. “I don’t like--”

She cut it off, not wanting to deal with his questions at the moment. She had more pressing matters to attend. 

The planet on which they’d landed was a cold, unforgiving place. The uninhabited surface stretched on for miles in either direction. In the distance odd shapes dotted the horizon. Rey eyed them for a moment, making sure they didn’t move. 

They’d landed their ships just yards from one another yet, Rey felt as if light years separated them. 

“Ben?” She approached him with caution, unsure of how it had affected him. 

He turned towards her, grief in his eyes. 

“You should have done it,” he replied with an apathetic tone. “You should have ended me. Everything it said was true.” 

Taking a few steps towards him, Rey tried to gauge his well being. “It wasn’t all true.”

With a shake of his head, Ben denied her words. “I have brought nothing but death to this world.”

“What was that thing?” Rey asked, avoiding his statement. He may have done horrible things, but she knew there was still light left in him. 

Ben sighed, running a hand through his hair. 

“When I was young, I was obsessed with the galaxy’s many histories, studying all the legends I could get my hands on.” A faint grin touched his lips as he spoke. “As far as I can discern, we just encountered a phenomena that is called the ‘Bubble of the Lost’. It’s where ships go to die.” 

A chill ran down Rey’s spine. Something inside her, shivered with some ancient fear passed down from generation to generation. Whatever the Bubble of the Lost was, she’d been born knowing it was a threat. 

“And yet our ships remain,” Rey pointed out, hoping her voice was as lighthearted as she hoped. 

“Rey,” Ben’s voice seemed to choke on her name. He sounded like the lost boy once more, only this time it had tangled itself up with the man standing before her. “You should have listened. You should have killed me.”

Even before he stopped speaking, Rey was shaking her head in denial. How could she kill him? How could she snuff out the light he tried so desperately to hide? 

“No,” Rey said with a smile touching her lips. “I won’t kill you, Ben Solo.”

He flinched at the name yet took a step towards her. His body seemed to shift, relaxing into a different version of himself. Their auras reached out, tentatively at first, and then melding together.

“You are our last hope.”

The words ignited a light in his eyes, one Rey had never seen before. His aura once again shifted around her, shaping into something else. It was still dark, yes. But there was hope. There was life. And something else… 

There was love. 

Just as in each of those visions Rey had been forced to endure. Each vision had held pain and anger. But she’d seen past it, saw something she hadn’t been able to put a name to until just now. 

Love. 

In a single stride, Ben closed the distance between them, grabbing her arm and yanking her to his chest. His lips devoured hers with a fevered demand. Blood raced through Rey’s veins, fueled by heat and adrenaline. How many times had she’d stolen glances at his full lips, wondering what they would feel like against hers? She had sat in the dark, alone, dragging her fingers lightly over her mouth, wondering what it would be like to be kissed- to be kissed by him. 

Heat raced through her limbs like a wildfire scorching through a lush forest, consuming everything in its path. 

Rey’s lips parted with a small gasp, inviting Ben’s tongue to dance with her own; he complied. Even as he kissed her, Rey knew nothing would ever be the same-- she would never be the same. It would rock her, shift her very being, changing it. Even as she knew all these things, she clung to him, clawing her fingers deep into his dark hair, forcing him closer. She welcomed the change. 

The visions had broken her, torn her down until she’d been left raw and vulnerable. Until Ben kissed her, she hadn’t known his touch was the very cure she needed to build her up again, shaping her back into a whole woman. His mouth over hers breathed the heat of life back into her heart. 

The fire within them both was like a captured star, trapped between them, threatening to explode. 

Together, they were a dangerous pair. His darkness could overshadow her light. Her light could outshine is dark. Her light was a part of her very soul, just as his darkness was a part of his. Neither could live without it. Together they could bring life or death, create or destroy. 

Light or Dark. 

Together, they could find a balance. Rey believed this. The visions she’d been subjected to had solidified her belief.

Alone, Ben succumbed to the darkness, embraced Kylo Ren. Kylo Ren killed and destroyed. Alone, Rey succumbed to the nothingness. She lost hope. Without hope, she was as good as dead. 

Ben nipped her lower lip between his teeth, forcing her away from her thoughts and back into the here and now. One hand braced itself on her hip, the other on her neck, holding her in place against his hard body. 

“Rey,” he broke their kiss, leaning his forehead against hers. They grasped for air; their shallow breaths mingling between them in small puffs of white against the chill. “Take me home.” 

“You are home,” Rey grinned at the words. The truth in them warming her down to her toes. She grasped his hand, running it down from her jaw to her chest, placing his palm over her heart. She placed her own hand over his heart, finding it to be beating just as wildly as her own. 

“Together then,” Ben breathed. “We face this together.”

Rey nodded, jostling his forehead against hers. “Together.”


End file.
